Tallahassee vs Florida: Personal Injury Case Analysis

By
Jimmy Fasig
|March 16, 2018

After analyzing 10 different types of cases and over 1,100 jury trial cases in the State of Florida, we have seen some interesting patterns in the cases originating in Leon County in comparison to the rest of the state (Fig. 1). Altogether, we analyzed 60 cases from the Tallahassee geographic region and 1,050 from the rest-of-state region to determine the variances between the cases stemming from the Tallahassee region and the rest of Florida generally. While the Tallahassee has a much lower number of cases than the rest of the state, we can draw some conclusions based on the information that we’ve found.

Most of the time, the rest-of-state region showed a higher average case value of all the different case types that we analyzed. That region had an overall average case value of $548,429.92. The Tallahassee region showed a much lower overall average case value of $353,012.40. Leon County showed a lower prevalence of plaintiff’s verdicts and defense verdicts and higher rates of comparative negligence verdicts and settlements than the other counties in Florida. In the Tallahassee region, we saw a true plaintiff’s verdict in about 41.64% of cases, a defense verdict in about 19.38% of cases, a comparative negligence verdict in about 16.57% of cases, and a settlement in about 22.41% of cases. On the other hand, we saw a true plaintiff’s verdict in about 44.89% of cases in the rest-of-state region of the sample, a defense verdict in about 28.90% of cases, a comparative negligence verdict in about 10.68% of cases, and a settlement in about 15.53% of cases.

Going deeper into our analysis, we can look at each of the 10 cases and investigate them separately by comparing their venue.

Wrongful Death

Of 100 wrongful death cases, we saw a sample average case value of $2,153,294.99 in the rest-of-state region and a sample average case value of $1,006,960 in the Tallahassee region. The cases in the rest-of-state region of the sample showed a 28.75% prevalence of a plaintiff’s verdict, a 27.50% prevalence of a defense verdict, a 12.50% prevalence of a comparative negligence verdict, and a 31.25% prevalence of a settlement. Meanwhile, in the Tallahassee cases, we saw a 20% prevalence of a plaintiff’s verdict, a 45% prevalence of a defense verdict, a 5% prevalence of a comparative negligence verdict, and a 30% prevalence of a settlement.

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

In 100 mild traumatic brain injury cases, we saw the rest-of-state region have an average case value of $503,537.09 and the Tallahassee region have an average case value of $489,610. The cases in the rest-of-state region showed that 51.04% of cases received a plaintiff’s verdict, 19.79% received a defense verdict, 11.46% received a comparative negligence verdict, and 17.71% received a settlement. In the Tallahassee region, we saw that no cases received either a defense verdict or comparative negligence verdict and 75% received a plaintiff’s verdict while 25% received a settlement.

Herniated Disc

Of the 114 cases involving herniated discs, the Tallahassee region produced a higher average case value than the rest-of-state region. We calculated that the Tallahassee region’s average case value within the sample was $296.536.31 and the rest-of-state region’s average case value within the sample was $122,105. This is the only instance in which the Tallahassee region has a higher average case value than the rest-of-state region. However, the rest-of-state region showed a higher instance of plaintiff’s verdicts and defense verdicts while having lower instances of comparative negligence verdicts and settlements. The rest-of-state region showed that 64% of the sample of herniated disc cases produced plaintiff’s verdicts, 22% produced defense verdicts, 9% produced comparative negligence verdicts, and 5% produced settlements. The Tallahassee region showed that 50% of cases in that sample produced plaintiff’s verdicts, 7.14% produced defense verdicts, 21.43% produced comparative negligence verdicts, and 21.43% produced settlements.

Herniated Disc (Involving Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist)

Looking at 100 herniated disc cases involved an uninsured or underinsured motorist, we calculated that the Tallahassee region showed an average case value of $34,260 while the rest-of-state region showed an average case value of $155,830.18. All of the cases involving a herniated disc case with an uninsured or underinsured motorist in the Tallahassee region resulted in a plaintiff’s verdict; the cases in the rest-of-state region displayed that the cases resulted in a plaintiff’s verdict 73.47% of the time, a defense verdict 17.35% of the time, a comparative negligence verdict 5.10% of the time, and a settlement 4.08% of the time.

Broken Femur

Analyzing 100 broken femur cases, we determined that the sample average case value in the rest-of-state region was $172,120.77 and the sample average case value in the Tallahassee region was $66,000, a little over $100,000 less than the rest-of-state region. Within the cases of the rest-of-state region, we saw 29.29% of cases resulted in a plaintiff’s verdict, 37.37% of cases resulted in a defense verdict, 20.20% of cases resulted in a comparative negligence verdict, and 13.13% of cases resulted in a settlement. For the cases in the Tallahassee region, we saw that all the cases resulted in a comparative negligence verdict.

Below the Knee Amputation

Finally, out of 100 below-the-knee amputations cases, we saw that the Tallahassee region had an average case value of $750,000 and that the rest-of-state region had an average case value of $1,099,578.47. The Tallahassee below-the-knee amputations cases all resulted in a settlement, while the cases in the rest-of-state region of the sample resulted in a plaintiff’s verdict 32.32% of the time, a defense verdict 37.37% of the time, a comparative negligence verdict 8.08% of the time, and a settlement 22.22% of the time.

Carpal Tunnel

Out of 100 carpal tunnel cases, we saw that the rest-of-state region had a significantly higher average case value of $45,723.45 than the Tallahassee region had with $5,833.33. The Tallahassee region presented that no cases resulted in either a plaintiff’s verdict or comparative negligence verdict while 66.67% resulted in a defense verdict and 33.33% resulted in a settlement. Within the rest-of-state region, we saw that the sample presented that 53.61% of carpal tunnel cases resulted in a plaintiff’s verdict, 29.90% resulted in a defense verdict, 10.31% resulted in a comparative negligence verdict, and 6.19% resulted in a settlement.

Rape

Examining 100 cases involving rape, we calculated that the Tallahassee region had a sample average case value of $615,000 while the rest-of-state region had an average case value of $738,639.17. Moreover, we calculated that the Tallahassee cases gave rise to a plaintiff’s verdict 71.43% of the time, a comparative negligence verdict 14.29% of the time, and a settlement 14.29% of the time. We saw no instances of a defense verdict in the Tallahassee cases involving rape. In the rest-of-state region, we saw those cases result in a plaintiff’s verdict 41.94% of the time, a defense verdict 26.88% of the time, a comparative negligence verdict 15.05% of the time, and a settlement 16.13% of the time.

Sexual Harassment

Furthermore, out of 200 cases where the plaintiff was involved in sexual harassment, we determined that the rest-of-state region had a sample average case value of $534,200.58 and the Tallahassee region had a sample average case value of $179,375. Interestingly, the Tallahassee region resulted in a 50/50 split of case outcomes between plaintiff’s verdicts and defense verdicts. In the rest-of-state region, we saw that 47.40% of cases resulted in a plaintiff’s verdict, 30.21% of cases resulted in a defense verdict, 1.56% of cases resulted in a comparative negligence verdict, and 20.83% of cases resulted in a settlement.

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